The allure of the mystic east is too much to resist for conservative politicians this fall.
Andrew Scheer plans to show just how businesslike he can make a junket to India in October, in contrast to Justin Trudeau's ill-received debacle of a trip earlier in the year.
And Alberta's United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney is in India this week, swanning through an itinerary pretty similar to a trip he took five years ago when he was in the federal Conservative cabinet.
He has two UCP shadow cabinet members in tow, trade critic Devin Dreeshenand energy critic Prasad Panda.
Of course he's not the premier of Alberta, and technically has no authority to speak for the province on trade, but Kenney's not letting that slow him down.
Since touching down, he has been Tweeting up a storm about his productive meetings with oil executives and government functionaries. He included a clip of an interview with Indian TV in which the impression is left by the interviewer that he represents a national party, not a provincial one.
He points out, humble bragging, in one tweet that he's been to India a number of times, in his former life on the Ottawa stage. And there does seem to be a bit of confusion on the part of Indian politicians he is meeting on his exact role on the trip.
An offhand Tweet from Nitin Gadkari, India's minister of infrastructure, described Kenney as "Hon'ble minister, Alberta, Canada." "We discussed about exploring areas of mutual cooperation in infrastructure sector," says Gadkari's Tweet.
There's no doubt that India could be a huge market of the future for Alberta's oil and gas resources. Kenney has also said he plans to address the issue of tariffs on western Canada's pulse crops which are causing damage to Alberta farm exports.
But the message of a provincial opposition leader, months before an election, going on what looks like an international trade mission, is so mixed it's hard to believe this is a well conceived political exercise.
Kenney has been less than singularly focused on the Alberta provincial scene from the moment he took up the challenge of uniting right wing parties in the province. He has weighed in on federal issues probably more than the federal Conservative Party would like.
In this instance he has beat federal leader Scheer to the punch in touring India. He is non-stop name dropping the political contacts he made in India. This trip's frenetic pace and display of busyness will be a high bar for Scheer to meet.
Deron Bilous, Alberta's real economic development minister, has expressed concern about the confusion Kenney might be sowing about Alberta's position on agricultural trade and who is actually authorized to deal with the Indian government on the issues.
One of Kenney's loudest critics, Thomas Lukaszuk, former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, has launched a Twitter campaign decrying Kenney's use of UCP party funds to take the trip. His argument is essentially that the party shouldn't be operating outside the provincial boundaries so its money shouldn't be in play in India. And he argues that since party donations are heavily tax subsidized, Kenney is using public funds for an unsanctioned trip.
NDP House Leader has taken up the cry, arguing that if Kenney thinks he's representing the province officially he shouldn't be using partisan funds.
Meanwhile UCP spokesperson Christine Myatt has fired back that Kenney cleared some aspects of the trip with the provincial ethics commissioner and the party can spend its fund as it sees fit.
But if some UCP members are uncomfortable with this trip, Kenney will need to fence mend when he returns. There is a a whiff of Allison Redford in this junket. The former PC premier's high flying foreign travel was a magnet for criticism throughout her brief controversy-wracked tenure. While the issue for Redford was use of public funds, there was also an undercurrent of discontent questioning whether the premier was really committed to leading the province or more interested in the international jet setting she could leverage out of the position.
And Kenney is vulnerable on that front. There has been speculation that his ultimate ambition, after winning the coming Alberta election and serving a term or maybe two, is in the federal forum. This trip isn't dispelling that notion.
And Canadian prime ministers jet off to India with far more legitimacy than even the premier of Alberta could justify.
